The target for the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol is to reduce emissions of how many greenhouse gases by 5.2% from 1990 levels?

The correct answer is D, 1992. Project Elephant was launched in 1992 to protect elephants, their habitat and the corridors along which herds move between forests, and it also deals with human elephant conflict and the welfare of captive elephants. Option A is wrong because 1972 is the year of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, the law under which such projects operate. Option B is wrong because 1973 belongs to Project Tiger, which came first and became the model for later species programmes. Option C is wrong because 1986 is the year of the Environment (Protection) Act, passed after the Bhopal gas tragedy, and has nothing to do with elephants. The elephant was later declared the National Heritage Animal in 2010, a fact often asked together with the year of the project.

The correct answer is B, the Gangetic river dolphin. This nearly blind freshwater dolphin of the Ganga, Brahmaputra and Meghna systems finds its prey by echolocation and was declared the National Aquatic Animal of India in 2009, a step meant to draw attention to the pollution and damming of its rivers. It is a Schedule I species. Option A is wrong because the olive ridley turtle, famous for its mass nesting at Gahirmatha in Odisha, is protected but carries no national title. Option C is wrong because the dugong or sea cow is a threatened marine mammal of the Gulf of Mannar and the Andaman waters, and is not the national aquatic animal. Option D is wrong because the Ganges shark is a rare river shark with no such status. Remember the trio of tiger, elephant and dolphin for national titles.

The correct answer is A, Dachigam National Park. The hangul, also called the Kashmir stag, is the only surviving Asiatic subspecies of the red deer in India and its last viable population lives in Dachigam, a park in the hills above Srinagar whose name means ten villages. It is a Schedule I animal and the state animal of Jammu and Kashmir. Option B is wrong because Hemis in Ladakh is the high altitude park associated with the snow leopard and the bharal. Option C is wrong because Kanha in Madhya Pradesh is tiger country and the home of the hard ground barasingha, a swamp deer that candidates often mix up with the hangul. Option D is wrong because Manas in Assam protects the pygmy hog, the rhinoceros and the tiger. Deer questions turn on this one distinction.

The correct answer is D, all three pairs. The Himalayan region is home to wild goats such as the ibex and the tahr and to the snow leopard, which hunts them above the tree line, so pair (a) is right. The tropical evergreen forests of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands yield hardwood timber including mahogany and rosewood, so pair (b) is right. The Gir forest of Gujarat is the only wild home of the Asiatic lion, so pair (c) is right as well. Options A, B and C are therefore wrong because each leaves out a pair that is correctly matched. Matching questions of this kind reward a candidate who has learnt the species with its landscape rather than the species alone, and the safest habit is to check every pair before choosing an option that excludes one.

The correct answer is C, 1975. CITES was drafted and signed at Washington in 1973, but a treaty begins to bind its members only after enough countries ratify it, and that stage was reached in 1975. It controls cross border trade through three appendices, of which Appendix I forbids commercial trade in the most threatened species such as the tiger and the rhinoceros. Option A is wrong because 1971 is the year of the Ramsar Convention on wetlands, signed in Iran. Option B is wrong in this particular question because 1973 is the year of signing, not of entry into force, and the paper asks for the latter. Option D is wrong because 1992 is the year of the Rio Earth Summit and the Convention on Biological Diversity. Keep the pair 1973 signed and 1975 in force firmly in mind.